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Avas Didion Flicker
Avas Didion Flicker was a poet, storyteller, adventurer, and world traveler. In his life he visited holy cities and knelt in disguise before veiled tyrants and god-kissed mendicants. He journeyed with desert caravans, earning his keep telling tales to rapturous audiences. He spoke with the Toblai in their mountain holds, stood on the shores of Perish, and walked the streets of Malaz City.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 1 At the end of his life he wrote in his colonnaded garden amidst fruit trees, nightingales, and many wives.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 1 Known Poems "Where Ravens Perch"The Crippled God, Epilogue I In Crack'd Pot Trail Flicker traveled on the Cracked Pot Trail across the Great Dry in order to attend The Century's Greatest Artist competition in Farrog. When the caravan ran out of food, the other well armed travelers decided their "useless" artistic companions would be more useful as meals. Every night Flicker and the others performed in competition for the right to live another day. Even though it appeared to be against his own self-interest, Flicker often assisted the other competitors when they seemed about to make a major mistake. He also took on the additional challenge of promising to redeem dancer Purse Snippet before the end of the trip.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3 Relish Chanter had her eye on the Flicker, casting wanton glances his way, and engaged him in savage lovemaking one night when her bestial, protective brothers were asleep. Flicker's fellow artists Brash Phluster and Calap Roud witnessed the event and threatened to tell Tiny Chanter. But Flicker turned the tables. For his next story he told a tale of how Calap had seduced Relish, and before Calap could deny it he was murdered by an enraged Tiny.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 3 Relish later admitted to Flicker that she felt trapped by her brothers and often thought of killing them to escape. Flicker offered a skeptical Relish the promise that he would find a way to release her.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 5 On the final night of the pilgrimage Flicker convinced the Chanters that Calap had impregnated their sister. He also described a future in which the child would learn of its father's death at its uncles hands and seek bloody vengeance. Realizing they had failed to protect their sister and fearful of a kin-slaying vow the three agreed to release Relish from their control.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6 As the pilgrim caravan came to the end of the Great Dry, Flicker told a story to the already agitated group of Nehemothanai and Chanters that hinted that their necromancer quarry were the true passengers in the Dantoc Calmpositis' carriage. Tiny and his brothers attacked and the carriage went out of control, dragging them and the Well Knight Arpo Relent and the Mortal Sword Tulgord Vise over a three hundred foot cliff to their apparent deaths.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6 Fellow traveler Sardic Thew paid Flicker handsomely for the Dantoc's death, now revealed to be a carefully planned and artfully executed assassination. Of all the tools (knives, garrotes, poison) used in his murderous career, Flicker most preferred killing with the spoken word. Flicker turned to Purse Snippet now that she knew what he was, and asked her if by comparing herself to him, could she not find something worthy in herself.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6 In The Fiends of Nightmaria Avas Didion Flicker was one of the ultimate survivors of the dire events of Crack'd Pot Trail who had arrived safely at the city of Farrog. Flicker did not stay long in Farrog, however, and he apparently left Farrog with Relish Chanter. Where they went and how long they remained together was not reported. Although it was widely assumed that Relish had been more than willing to run off with Flicker, her brothers, especially Tiny Chanter, preferred to think that Relish had been "kidnapped" and forced to go with Flicker against her will.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 11 Quotes Speculations Since the fact that Flicker, near the end of his life (when he theoretically wrote the long ago history of what had happened to the caravan of travellers that became the story, Crack'd Pot Trail), mentioned that he then had many wives,Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 1 one could wonder if one of those wives was, in fact, Relish Chanter. Notes and references Category:Authors Category:Poems Category:Assassins